“Fake News”?

[acamp]

Good evening everyone,
I don’t remember from which college website I read it on, but last month I read that they are no longer distinguishing between “national” and “regional” accreditation. Is there ANY truth to that or no? I am thinking not at all but it was on their college website (now I need to try to remember which college website I read it on it in my research). Anyone hear that or is that 100% false?




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[freeloader]

The US Department of Education is no longer differentiating between regional and national accreditation, so it is at least partly true.  It is likely the case that it will be easier to qualify for federal government employment with a nationally accredited degree than it might have been before.  Can have implications for grants, loans, and other federal programs.

BUT, this isn’t some sort of universal federal mandate. If you want to enter a profession that requires a state-level licensure (law, medicine, public accounting, nursing, engineering, etc), the states can still require a regionally accredited degree. If you want to go to graduate or professional school, the university can still require a regionally accredited degree for admissions. If you want to get a job in the private sector or many in state or local government, your potential employer can still require a regionally accredited degree. If you want to use an American degree for emigration or work in a foreign country, foreign employers and immigration services can still require regionally accredited degrees.

Is it better now than before for people with nationally accredited degrees, but there definitely is still a difference.

[acamp]

The US Department of Education is no longer differentiating between regional and national accreditation, so it is at least partly true.  It is likely the case that it will be easier to qualify for federal government employment with a nationally accredited degree than it might have been before.  Can have implications for grants, loans, and other federal programs.

BUT, this isn’t some sort of universal federal mandate. If you want to enter a profession that requires a state-level licensure (law, medicine, public accounting, nursing, engineering, etc), the states can still require a regionally accredited degree. If you want to go to graduate or professional school, the university can still require a regionally accredited degree for admissions. If you want to get a job in the private sector or many in state or local government, your potential employer can still require a regionally accredited degree. If you want to use an American degree for emigration or work in a foreign country, foreign employers and immigration services can still require regionally accredited degrees.

Is it better now than before for people with nationally accredited degrees, but there definitely is still a difference.

That makes a LOT of sense, thank you. Since you said that the US DOE no longer differentiates between regional and national accreditation, how would that work for public school teachers? Would a nationally accredited degree then be accepted or would that determine on the specific state’s DOE?

Thanks again!


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[jsd]

Depends on the state. I'm not aware of any states that have followed the USDOE in no longer distinguishing between NA/RA, but I've also not looked into it other than some California related professional licensures

[dfrecore]

My state (SC) requires an RA degree. Lots of other states (maybe all of them) do as well.

If you want to teach, get an RA degree.

[sanantone]

The US Department of Education is no longer differentiating between regional and national accreditation, so it is at least partly true.  It is likely the case that it will be easier to qualify for federal government employment with a nationally accredited degree than it might have been before.  Can have implications for grants, loans, and other federal programs.

BUT, this isn’t some sort of universal federal mandate. If you want to enter a profession that requires a state-level licensure (law, medicine, public accounting, nursing, engineering, etc), the states can still require a regionally accredited degree. If you want to go to graduate or professional school, the university can still require a regionally accredited degree for admissions. If you want to get a job in the private sector or many in state or local government, your potential employer can still require a regionally accredited degree. If you want to use an American degree for emigration or work in a foreign country, foreign employers and immigration services can still require regionally accredited degrees.

Is it better now than before for people with nationally accredited degrees, but there definitely is still a difference.

The federal government never discriminated against national accreditation when it came to employment, and Title IV eligibility was already available to nationally accredited schools. Some NA and RA schools simply choose not to participate in Title IV financial aid programs. The federal government was the most accepting of nationally accredited degrees among governmental levels. I only saw discrimination at the state and local levels. It wouldn't have made sense for the federal government to discriminate against accreditors they recognized. This move was made because of what was going on outside of the federal government. 

The Trump administration wanted to get rid of the distinction hoping that it would persuade regionally accredited colleges and universities to stop discriminating against credits and degrees that come from nationally accredited schools. They were also hoping that licensing boards would end their discrimination. To be honest, the Trump administration was pro for-profit colleges, and since most NA schools are for-profit, this change was probably made to benefit that industry. Of course, the federal government can't force institutions of higher education or state/local governments to recognize national accreditation, but there has been a little movement after Betsy Devos' Department of Education sent out that letter to every accredited institution. Only time will tell whether more RA schools and government agencies will stop distinguishing between types of accreditation, but many schools and governmental agencies take direction from CHEA, and CHEA still separates RA and NA.

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The US Department of Education is no longer differentiating between regional and national accreditation, so it is at least partly true.  It is likely the case that it will be easier to qualify for federal government employment with a nationally accredited degree than it might have been before.  Can have implications for grants, loans, and other federal programs.

BUT, this isn’t some sort of universal federal mandate. If you want to enter a profession that requires a state-level licensure (law, medicine, public accounting, nursing, engineering, etc), the states can still require a regionally accredited degree. If you want to go to graduate or professional school, the university can still require a regionally accredited degree for admissions. If you want to get a job in the private sector or many in state or local government, your potential employer can still require a regionally accredited degree. If you want to use an American degree for emigration or work in a foreign country, foreign employers and immigration services can still require regionally accredited degrees.

Is it better now than before for people with nationally accredited degrees, but there definitely is still a difference.

That makes a LOT of sense, thank you.   Since you said that the US DOE no longer differentiates between regional and national accreditation, how would that work for public school teachers?  Would a nationally accredited degree then be accepted or would that determine on the specific state’s DOE?

Thanks again!


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This move was not made to make it easier for people with NA degrees to obtain federal government employment or some federal credential because the federal government never cared about NA vs RA (an exception might be federal government-run universities, such as the military academies). Some federal jobs, however, require programmatic accreditation, so that's when neither NA nor RA, alone, will help you. For example, the VA requires APA, CPA, or PCAS accreditation for psychologists. 

This move was made to influence colleges and universities and state and local governments. In reality, this was really done to benefit the for-profit college industry. While some schools and licensing boards no longer discriminate against NA degrees, many, if not most, still do. Some schools, such as Virginia University of Lynchburg, will lie to prospective students and tell them that employers and institutions of higher education can no longer discriminate against NA degrees. That is not true. The U.S. Department of Education does not have the legal authority to tell employers or colleges and universities what they can and cannot accept. USDOE even has a document on their website explaining this. Independent accreditors come up with those guidelines, but most of them give the schools they accredit a lot of autonomy in deciding transfer credit policies and admissions requirements. 

The federal government definitely cannot force state licensing boards to recognize NA degrees; that would be unconstitutional. Another lie that you might hear from NA schools is that national and regional accreditation no longer exist. CHEA still makes the distinction and so do many colleges and licensing boards. They don't need USDOE to tell them what is NA or RA.

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If state governments wanted to, they could force their public colleges and universities to accept credits from NA schools, but I don't see that happening any time soon except for maybe in a state like California because they like to experiment with stuff like that.

[LevelUP]

Going to college requires a large time and money commitment.

Nobody wants to invest their time and money and then later find out that they will be discriminated against because they went to a NA college instead of a RA college.

Here at DF, we usually recommend getting a RA degree for U.S. students. 

Some international students can get by on a NA degree from a college such as UOP.